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Book Description

This is a book about God.

Not just any God, but a God worth believing in.

It’s a book about wrestling with death and fear and doubt—and hoping to find something bigger.

It's a book about heaven. Often when we think of heaven, what comes to mind is escape. According to Medieval art and modern cartoons, “heaven” is about leaving this world. Heaven is about getting as far away from what we and others have broken as possible. But this is a move of despair, and despair isn't healthy.

This is a book about hell. Sometimes we believe ridiculous ideas so long they no longer seem ridiculous. But we need to reimagine hell. The real God would not choose a world that could contain an everlasting torture chamber.

Most of all this is a book about Jesus. Not the Jesus we see in bad Christian art, but the Jesus who emerges from a dark corner of history and can’t help illuminating everything he touches. In this Jesus, we see a new kind of God. In this Jesus, we see a new future.

“Jeff Cook offers an honest voice in the midst of too many saying the same thing with subtle, monotonous, meaningless differences … There’s more in this little book than its length indicates. Digest this book.”

SCOT McKNIGHT
Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University

It’s a book about wrestling with death and fear and doubt—and hoping to find something bigger.

It's a book about heaven. Often when we think of heaven, what comes to mind is escape. According to Medieval art and modern cartoons, “heaven” is about leaving this world. Heaven is about getting as far away from what we and others have broken as possible. But this is a move of despair, and despair isn't healthy.

This is a book about hell. Sometimes we believe ridiculous ideas so long they no longer seem ridiculous. But we need to reimagine hell. The real God would not choose a world that could contain an everlasting torture chamber.

Most of all this is a book about Jesus. Not the Jesus we see in bad Christian art, but the Jesus who emerges from a dark corner of history and can’t help illuminating everything he touches. In this Jesus, we see a new kind of God. In this Jesus, we see a new future.

“Jeff Cook offers an honest voice in the midst of too many saying the same thing with subtle, monotonous, meaningless differences … There’s more in this little book than its length indicates. Digest this book.”

SCOT McKNIGHT
Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jeff Cook offers an honest voice in the midst of too many saying the same thing with subtle, monotonous, meaningless differences ... There's more in this little book than its length indicates. Digest this book."

This book takes a number of approaches to the problem of God-belief in a culture that has made many things about it intellectually and emotionally unsatisfying. I find that the greatest strength here is stepping away from the old standbys of traditional apologetics - arguments that prioritize biblical literalism, disparage the morality of the nonreligious, or try to systematically develop an intellectual framework that carefully sidesteps or weasels around legitimate conflicts within contemporary Christian theology. This may have been effective at one time, but I find more and more that recent work in apologetics invests more in shoring up an increasingly irrelevant religious culture than in developing a compelling case for Christ's teachings.

Cook avoids this trap by tackling the issues that matter directly - how can we believe in a good God in an evil-filled world? How can we find relevance in ancient biblical writings that were authored far before developments in astrophysics and biochemistry started to offer compelling explanations for things like the fate of the universe, or the chemical workings of our motivations and actions?

This book doesn't try to discredit those advancements, or gloss over difficult issues - it makes them the crux of the argument, and offers some novel perspectives that, in my opinion, make it evident exactly how limited the apologetics of the last few decades have really been.

I find Cook's case for why the story of Christ is fundamentally different from all other religious traditions to be the single most important part of this book. The God of Christ is one that takes the symbols of our deepest pain, struggle, and fear and turns them into images of hope and peace, and that is, as he says, "a God worth believing in".

Ultimately, this book is worth picking up to see that a new kind of argument for God is possible, and needed. A new vocabulary for the message of Christ is crucial to address many of the modern criticisms of the church, and this book lays those foundations. Although it isn't perfect, and you may find points you disagree with, I can say with confidence that it is Important, and something that needs to be considered.Read more ›

"Everything New" was the second book-length piece I had read by Jeff Cook. The first, Seven, is also worth your consideration if studying the Seven Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes is of interest to you. This later piece by Cook, Everything New, is a favorite of mine in Christian theology, second only to Lewis. I consider this work seminal for my later interest in Christian theology and my further involvement into church life more generally.Now that it has been re-released, I greatly look forward to getting members of my extended family a copy of the book so that they can share a similar experience.(Also, listening to the audio version by the author is a great way - I found - in hearing the tone of the work in its intended voice.)

I was pleasantly surprised with Cook's transparency, honesty and overall flow of thought and storytelling found in this book. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has followed the ongoing conversations about the new atheism, the topic of hell, or the emergent movement in the Protestant church. You will find some really good insight here and a Jesus-centered, thought-provoking, real-life-level exploration of the baseline presuppositions and assumptions that many of us are anchored in.

I found this book uplifting and inspiring during a dark and confusing time. The ideas cook shares in this piece were the catalyst for my return to a relationship with Christ. I remember feeling elated while reading this because I, for the first time, didn't feel alone in the ways in which I believed in a loving God. This book gave me a sense of community and hope. I shed a few tears, and had some great laughs! A friend gave me my copy, and I gave that to another friend, now that it has been rereleased, I'll be purchasing another! "Everything New" makes a fabulous gift, it is worthy of your time, and a permanent home on your bookshelf.

In many ways this book takes the mantle of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and carries it into the 21st century. Mr. Cook's grasp of the struggle of being human is clearly conveyed, and he uses wit, humor and incredible insight to illustrate God's presence in that struggle. I highly recommend this book!

Jeff Cook is a hot developing author to keep an eye on. I’ve learned from interviews, books and his Twitter feed that he brings fresh perspective to almost everything. He mixes philosophy, history, theology and stories of personal vulnerability together in an always-interesting stir-fry. I highlighted some zingers:

“Some will not die to their infantile selves and opt for resurrection.”

“Christians hold in their hands the most profound sets of insights into the human condition ever composed and yet, despite their numbers and resources, they consistently produce the most lack luster art, literature and political thought available in popular circles.”

“I find the “Christian Living” section of the local bookstore—with a few noteworthy exceptions—a disheartening place where good brains go to die.”

“American Christianity gave me no good reason to think it was true, beautiful, or good. In fact, I found the converse. This community, on the whole, continues to produce below average ideas, suggesting below average insights about its extra-ordinary God.”

“Crosses were the nuclear weapon of the ancient world. Crosses communicated to everyone that the violent, the brutally ambitious, and the merciless reign over the earth.”

“There are good reasons to think that Jesus was poor and that his father had died somewhere between Jesus’ 13th and 34th birthday. First, his family lived first in Nazareth and later Capernaum; as such they did not live in Bethlehem where Joseph’s ancestors had once owned property. Not owning property explains why Jesus’ father worked as a carpenter.

“Joseph did not work as a “farmer” on his own land. Instead he built goods for other people where he could find work. Because land was the primary asset of the day and so highly valued in Jewish culture, Joseph’s profession coupled with the family’s mobility makes it clear that Jesus’ family was poor. Lastly, Joseph had certainly died by the time Jesus began his public career. Joseph’s wife Mary is consistently pictured alone in the Gospels, and in John’s story one of Jesus’ students is charged with her care after Jesus’ own death.”

“Most of us believe—totally without evidence—that our brains are reliable. Nothing we do can prove the reliability of our brains.”

“Causation, time, and experience of the external world are the foundation of the natural sciences.”

His chapter about rethinking hell scored important points - especially his observation that the proper starting point for discussions about hell is God ensuring that Adam and Eve did not eat of the tree of life. Not a definitive argument, but a very sound and logical one. Which passages are subordinate to the others? Cook argues the harsher passages should be understood in the shadow of the Bible’s very first reference to immortality, where God issues a severe mercy as he ushers Adam & Eve out of the garden.